New York City’s plan to move most of the $45 million now received by private lawyers for representing the poor in criminal cases to institutional providers like the Legal Aid Society is both illegal and will “severely impede” the rights of defendants, bar associations from all of the city’s boroughs charge in a lawsuit filed Wednesday (See Complaint).
The suit seeks to bar the city from proceeding with a request for bids, issued in February, from legal services groups to take over most of the 34,000 cases handled by private lawyers (NYLJ, Feb. 10).
